They exchanged glances, and Ding Ruozhao took the lead, stepping inside. Although it was dim, her divine sense probed ahead, revealing everything within the passage.
The group casually tossed out several fist-sized moonstones, illuminating the space.
The passage wasn't long, only about twenty zhang, leading to a stone cave about a hundred zhang in size.
The stone cave was constructed like a large hall, furnished with simple decorations, seemingly a secret cultivation dwelling.
Several stone chambers of varying sizes opened up around the walls, each inscribed with text.
"Earth Fire Room," "Mind-Cleansing Chamber," "Treasure Cave," and so on.
Upon recognizing these words, Zhang Ling and the others were overjoyed. This confirmed their earlier conjecture that this was indeed one of Guo Xius secret hideouts.
Without hesitation, they headed towards the nearest stone chamber. It was twenty to thirty zhang in size, but they found nothing. Undeterred, they continued to explore each chamber one by one.
When the group gathered in front of the Treasure Cave, they were blocked by a layer of yellow spiritual light.
Seeing this, they were ecstatic. The presence of an array restriction meant there were still items stored inside.
Breaking this restriction was easy.
They unleashed their attacks directly at the yellow light. After several dozen breaths, they shattered the restriction and entered.
Inside, several rows of stone shelves met their eyes, each covered by a thin blue light罩. Within the light罩, they could see over a dozen items, including flying swords, tokens, and books.
"Haha, there are indeed some treasures left here!" Qing Mang Daoist laughed heartily, his eyes filled with greed.
Zhang Ling was also inwardly surprised. After a quick glance, he noticed the flying sword was a magical treasure. The other items also shimmered with spiritual light, indicating they were not ordinary.
It seemed the original owner of this place was quite powerful, at least a Golden Core cultivator like themselves.
Zhang Ling speculated inwardly, subtly glancing at Ding Ruozhao, Long Lao, and the others.
Their expressions weren't as openly joyful as Qing Mang Daoist, but he could sense their breathing quickening. Clearly, they were all tempted.
Without needing instructions, Qing Mang Daoist raised his hand and shot out a golden ray, striking the thin blue light.
With a soft crack, the blue light flickered twice and dissipated. With the attack power of a Golden Core cultivator, it was easily broken.
This layer of spiritual light wasn't a strong protective barrier.
However, its function was significant. It was a Spirit-Nourishing Light Screen, a type of spirit-gathering array.
This type of light screen absorbed a small amount of nearby spiritual energy, nourishing the treasures inside and preventing them from losing their power.
It was commonly used to protect important items. The denser the surrounding spiritual energy, the slower the treasures' power would dissipate.
This method was common, and modern cultivators also used it. It was an important reason why some treasures could still be found in ancient ruins.
After breaking the light screen, Qing Mang Daoist glanced at the treasures, then turned to the others with a chuckle.
"How shall we divide the treasures here?"
This man had some sense of propriety, knowing he couldn't swallow all the treasures himself. Ding Ruozhao smiled at Qing Mang Daoist before speaking.
"It's only natural to divide them equally. However, we promised Long Lao that he could choose two items first. I wonder if Long Lao is amenable to that here."
"Hehe, no hurry. Let's first examine the value of these treasures," Old Wang said, narrowing his eyes and scanning the items on the shelves.
The group exchanged glances, then tacitly gathered around the shelves, beginning to analyze the treasures.
Their gazes immediately fell upon the treasures with the strongest spiritual fluctuations.
The three-inch-long small sword was the first to be recognized as a magical treasure, with a layer of spiritual light constantly rippling around it.
The sword was covered in dark golden patterns. Once mana was injected, it would transform into a wide longsword with considerable attack power, making it a decent offensive magical treasure.
Next were two other magical treasures.
One was a cyan token, an offensive and defensive magical treasure.
When activated with spiritual power, it could release a layer of spiritual energy shield. Its defensive power was much stronger than a Golden Core cultivators spiritual energy shield. At full power, it could easily withstand several attacks from cultivators of the same rank.
The tokens attack method was to release two thick fire snakes with considerable power.
The last magical artifact was somewhat special: a yellow jade flute. Magical treasures that released sonic attacks were rare.
Then there were several jade slips and two books.
The group examined the books and jade slips. One book recorded a set of thunder-attribute techniques called "Azure Thunder Art." The other recorded a wind-attribute technique called "Whirlwind诀."
Both techniques were quite complete and could be cultivated to the Nascent Soul stage, making them top-tier techniques. They were quite valuable, as techniques of different attributes were hard to find in the cultivation world. Each one could be exchanged for at least tens of thousands of spirit stones.
But Zhang Ling was somewhat disappointed after reading them. The techniques were indeed good, but neither was suitable for his cultivation.
Finally, the group turned their attention to the remaining boxes. There were seven boxes in total, each affixed with spiritual talismans.
The groups expressions varied after opening the boxes. Two of the jade boxes were empty, with only a layer of dust visible. However, a faint herbal fragrance could still be detected.
The group determined that the boxes had indeed contained something, and judging by the scent, it seemed to be precious spiritual herbs.
But time had passed for too long. Even with spiritual energy nourishing them, these harvested herbs, being rootless wood, had turned to dust over time.
Of the remaining five boxes, one contained a cyan jade bottle, one a red jade bottle, and one a white jade slip. The last two contained a crimson phosphorus ore and a broken jade shard.
The cyan jade bottle contained a dozen black-purple pills. Upon opening it, a pungent odor wafted out. Perhaps due to the passage of time, they had deteriorated.
The red bottle contained three or four flat small particles. After examination, the group determined they were seeds of some kind of spiritual herb.
The pills were naturally not something the group would consume. Even if they had been miraculous elixirs, they had now deteriorated and were no different from poison. They were ruined and had no value.
The spiritual herb seeds were also of little use to the group.
Regardless of the preciousness of the spiritual herbs or flowers, their growth period was calculated in centuries.
Whether they could be cultivated to maturity was another matter. Even if they could, these Golden Core cultivators basically couldn't wait until the day they could be used.
